Tigers put their best shots forward

STOCKTON - The Pacific men's basketball team stayed perfect on Sunday afternoon with its most complete effort of the 2013-14 season.

Jagdip Dhillon

STOCKTON - The Pacific men's basketball team stayed perfect on Sunday afternoon with its most complete effort of the 2013-14 season.

The game against Western Illinois turned into a showcase for Pacific's senior backcourt as Andrew Bock and Sama Taku spurred the Tigers to a 66-52 victory before 1,771 at Spanos Center. Taku and Bock combined for 29 points, seven assists and eight rebounds as Pacific (3-0) made its first nine shots over the first 5 minutes, 38 seconds, jumping out to a 21-3 lead that the Leathernecks (0-3) never got under 13 points.

"Our guys played with a lot of confidence out of the gate," Pacific coach Ron Verlin said. "We were able to get right to our stuff and execute it. The beauty was the shots went right through the bottom."

Taku, who had 16 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals, said the Tigers came out and executed the game plan and exploited Western Illinois' physical, man-to-man defense by moving the ball.

"We were prepared for their defense the entire game," Taku said. "Everybody was making the extra pass and when everybody does that it makes the game so much easier."

Verlin said his team won the game on defense, holding Western Illinois to 37.2 percent shooting and forcing 17 turnovers. Garrett Covington led the Leathernecks with 16 points and Adam Link had 15, but Western Illinois never got its pick-and-roll game going.

"They beat us in every phase," Western Illinois coach Jim Molinari said. "I thought Pacific did a tremendous job of executing their offense and they made us work very hard for our offense and we turned it over too much."

Molinari said the Tigers will be tough to beat this season when they shoot it that well (7 of 17) from 3-point range. The Leathernecks were 4 of 16 from beyond the arc. Pacific also went 11 of 11 from the free-throw line.

The entire second half was essentially garbage time as Western Illinois never threatened after the Tigers built a 44-23 halftime lead. Pacific scored 22 points in the second half, but it hardly mattered. The blowout allowed Verlin to extend his bench as the reserves played 75 minutes and scored 15 points.

Senior forward Tony Gill, who led Pacific with 19 points, making 7 of 12 from the field, while getting three steals and a block, said despite all the early success, the Tigers are trying to have a short memory and move forward to the next game, which will be 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Fresno State at Spanos Center.

"We beat a really good team today by preparing hard for them all week," Gill said. "We're a confident group and we're just looking to get better each and every day."